Ah, Marvel comics in the 1970s. Big dumb fun.

I picked this up because it had the very first Thor comic I ever read, back when each visit to the spinner rack offered up more and more enticements for a stupid kid with an extra quarter in his pocket. (If you must know, it was The Mighty Thor #242, "When the Servitor Commands!", released September 9, 1975, just a few short days before my 13th birthday).

Thor, for whatever reason, has always held a special place for me. Maybe it was the hammer. Maybe it was the Shakespearean speech. Maybe it was Volstagg. I don't know, but I do know that, coming back almost fifty years later to these stories again, unlike a lot of other stuff from that time, I still enjoy the hell out of these.

A big part of that is the art by John Buscema, especially when Joe Sinnott is inking his pencils. Len Wein, while never a shocking talent, could show flashes of brilliance (such as his Swamp Thing work for DC), and here, he's obviously having a lot of fun, though, seriously count how many times Thor's all "yea, verily, I doth go forth to smite yon wretchedly evil villain" and Jane's all, "I'm coming with you, darling (and yes, there's a crap-ton of darlings in there)" and Thor says no, and Jane reminds him of the fact that she's sharing her body with Sif, and Thor relents.

Like, every couple of issues!

Overall though, while none of these stories are groundbreaking, they were enough to capture the mind of that almost-13-year-old, and they're still good enough to make this 60-year-old smile. ( )